(Gesneriaceae), a new species from central Vietnam.

, a new species of Gesneriaceae family discovered in Tay Giang District, Quang Nam Province, Central Vietnam, is here described and illustrated. The new species is diagnosed by the combination of its stem up to 2 m long, sericeous hairs on young stem, leaf petiole and adaxial mid-vein, sparsely and minutely serrate leaf margin, axillary inflorescence spreading along stem, sparsely long gland-tipped hairs on peduncle, pedicel, calyx, outside corolla and pistil, calyx 5-disparted from base, purplish white flower with purple stripes inside corolla tube, and dish-shaped stigma formed by 2 semi-orbicular lobes horizontally expanding. Distinct features of the new species and its morphologically closest congener, , are compared and discussed.

Contributions to the biodiversity of Vietnam - Results of VIETBIO inventory work and field training in Cuc Phuong National Park.

VIETBIO [Innovative approaches to biodiversity discovery and characterisation in Vietnam] is a bilateral German-Vietnamese research and capacity building project focusing on the development and transfer of new methods and technology towards an integrated biodiversity discovery and monitoring system for Vietnam. Dedicated field training and testing of innovative methodologies were undertaken in Cuc Phuong National Park as part and with support of the project, which led to the new biodiversity data and records made available in this article collection. VIETBIO is a collaboration between the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin - Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (MfN), the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin (BGBM) and the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN), the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), the Southern Institute of Ecology (SIE), as well as the Institute of Tropical Biology (ITB); all Vietnamese institutions belong to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

Taxonomy notes and new occurrence data of four species of atyid shrimp (Crustacea: Decapoda: Atyidae) in Vietnam, all described from China.

Background: Freshwater shrimp of the family Atyidae De Haan, 1849 have been studied in Vietnam for more than a century. A total of 24 species of atyid shrimps from the genera H. Milne Edwards, 1837, Kubo, 1938, Chace, 1983 have been recorded from Vietnam.

, a new species of Gesneriaceae from Phu Quoc Island, South-western Vietnam.

A new species of Gesneriaceae, , is described and illustrated from Phu Quoc National Park, Kien Giang Province, South-western Vietnam. It is most similar to , and in having 3-verticillate petiolate leaves, morphologically similar calyx, corolla, stamens, pistil and fruit, but differs from all in the glandular-pubescent stems, petioles and leaf blades, 1(-2)-flowered cymes, longer corolla and fruit and longer and densely glandular-puberulent ovary. Data on distribution, ecology, phenology and provisional conservation assessment of the new species are given along with an illustration and a colour plate.

(Gesneriaceae), a new species from North Central Vietnam.

N.D. Do et al.

V.S. Dang & Vuong (Taccaceae), a new species from southern Vietnam.

V.S. Dang & Vuong (Taccaceae) is described as a new species from Hon Ba Nature Reserve in southern Vietnam.

A new skink of the genus Sphenomorphus Fitzinger, 1843 (Squamata: Scincidae) from Hon Ba Nature Reserve, southern Vietnam.

A new forest skink of the genus Sphenomorphus Fitzinger, 1843 is described from Khanh Hoa Province, southern Vietnam based on morphological characters of four specimens and a fragment of 653 nucleotides of the gene COI. Sphenomorphus yersini sp. nov.